IDDBA 2012: Customers Want Fresh Proof

Lots of delis and prepared food departments claim to have fresh food, but customers want them to prove it.

During his presentation “Customer Shopping Dynamics — The Decision Tree,” Datssential’s Jack Li said that shoppers are looking for more information about deli product freshness. “Just the word fresh alone is probably not enough in most cases,” Li said, noting retailers likely want to make a more direct statement on just how fresh products are.

Fifty nine percent of shoppers want to know when a package was opened, and 65% want to know the expiration date. Only 11% of consumers have seen opened package dates, and 18% have seen expiration dates on deli products.

“Another thing: labeling. This a big issue, too.” Li said he went to a deli today where there were no labels at all on products leaving him to guess the what the different types of food were.

“Fried foods are awesome, but they’d be even more awesome if you knew what they actually [were].”